hamburger
A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...
introduced in 1971 by a
Fremont, California
Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...
fast food
Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
and extended nationwide in 1973. Its name refers to the beef patty having a precooked weight of approximately one quarter of a pound, originally portioned as but increased to in 2015. In some countries where the pound is not customarily used as a unit of weight, the hamburger's branding instead features the word Royal.
In 2013, the Quarter Pounder was expanded to represent a whole line of hamburgers that replaced the company's Angus hamburger, which was discontinued due to high prices for Angus beef at the time.
History
The Quarter Pounder was created by Al Bernardin, a franchise owner and former McDonald's Vice President of
product development
New product development (NPD) or product development in business and engineering covers the complete process of launching a new product to the market. Product development also includes the renewal of an existing product and introducing a product ...
, in
Fremont, California
Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...
, in 1971. Bernardin had moved to Fremont in 1970 after purchasing two company-owned McDonald's restaurants.
Bernardin began experimenting with new menu items for his McDonald's franchises. In 1971, Bernardin introduced the first Quarter Pounders at his McDonald's in Fremont using the slogan, "Today Fremont, tomorrow the world." The Quarter Pounder became such a success, it was added to the national American menu in 1973. Since May 2018, McDonald's is using fresh beef with no preservatives added for their Quarter Pounders at their continental U.S. locations. On October 1, 2018, McDonald's announced that it would remove all artificial preservatives, flavors, and coloring from the Quarter Pounders.
An ''E. coli'' outbreak from September to October 2024 was linked to contaminated slivered onions supplied by Taylor Farms that were used in Quarter Pounders in 14 states. 104 reported cases, and one death, were attributed to the contaminated onions.
Japan
In November 2008, McDonald's Japan (which until then had never offered the Quarter Pounder as a regular item) converted two
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
restaurants into "Quarter Pounder"–branded restaurants which only sold Quarter Pounder meals. These promotional branches closed on November 27, 2008, coinciding with the re-introduction of the Quarter Pounder at regular McDonald's branches throughout the Kantō (Tokyo) region from November 28. The Quarter Pounder was launched at one McDonald's restaurant in the Kansai (Osaka) region on December 23, 2008. It was later reported that 15,000 customers had visited the restaurant on the first day, generating a record 10.02 million yen in sales for a single restaurant in one day. However, it was also revealed that McDonald's had hired 1,000 "extras" to queue up on the first day. McDonald's Japan explained that the hirees were used for "product monitoring purposes".
The Quarter Pounder was discontinued in Japan as of April 4, 2017. McDonald's Holdings Co. has to date given no official reason for the removal. It was replaced by a line of three "Gran" (グラン) burgers around the same date.
Product description
The burger comprises a
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...
patty weighing before cooking and prepared, pickles, raw
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
there are three variations: the Quarter Pounder with cheese, Quarter Pounder with Cheese & Bacon and the Quarter Pounder Deluxe.
The nutritional content of the Quarter Pounder varies between countries and locations. For example, in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, which uses local beef for its McDonald's products, the average Quarter Pounder has 33.7 g of protein per serving, a higher value than that stated for the same burger in the United States.
Product name
In English-speaking countries the product retains the Quarter Pounder name despite
metrication
Metrication or metrification is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. All over the world, countries have transitioned from local and traditional Unit of measurement, units of measurement to the metric system. This ...
; in
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, it is known as ''Quart de livre''. The term ''Quarterão com Queijo'' is used in metric
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, ''Cuarto de Libra con Queso'' in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and in
Hispanic America
Hispanic America ( or ), historically known as Spanish America () or Castile (historical region), Castilian America (), is the Spanish-speaking countries and territories of the Americas. In all of these countries, Spanish language, Spanish is th ...
, ''Quarter Pounder Cheese'' is used in
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
, and ''QP Cheese'' in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. Some European countries, like
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
and the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
simply refer to it as the ''Quarter Pounder''. In Hong Kong, the Quarter Pounder is known as a "full three taels" ( zh, 足三両) in Chinese because three
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji).
The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
representation of "Quarter Pounder" ( ).
In several countries that do not customarily use the pound as a unit of weight, the Quarter Pounder is sold under different names. In France, Belgium, Croatia and Cyprus it is called the ''Royal Cheese'' and includes cheese. In
German-speaking Europe
This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the Germanosphere () in Europe, German-speaking minority languag ...
it is known as a ''Hamburger Royal''; in Germany it includes lettuce and tomato and is branded ''Hamburger Royal TS'' (TS standing for ''Tomate und Salat'', tomato and lettuce). In Russia and Ukraine, it was known as ''Royal Cheeseburger'', and since 2016 in Russia it is called ''Grand Cheeseburger''. In Hungary and Poland it is called ''McRoyal''.
In some Middle Eastern countries such as
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
and
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
, McDonald's offers both a Quarter Pounder and a McRoyale burger, the McRoyale having slightly different ingredients.
Other fractional-pound hamburgers
A competing chain, A&W, attempted to introduce a similar, but larger burger in the 1980s which contained a beef patty rather than a patty, but it met with customer disinterest due to the perception that a patty which was a third of a pound was lighter and smaller than a quarter pound patty. This confusion stems from the fact that the denominator of the
fraction
A fraction (from , "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight-fifths, thre ...
is smaller than the denominator for (i.e., 3 < 4). The restaurant later jocularly introduced the Pound Burger anew in 2021 amid Internet folklore relaying the story.
Cultural reference
In the 1994 American film '' Pulp Fiction'', the story opens with two hitmen, Jules and Vincent, having a playful conversation about the cultural differences in Europe, including the fact of how the name of the sandwich was nonsensical in France due to the
metric system
The metric system is a system of measurement that standardization, standardizes a set of base units and a nomenclature for describing relatively large and small quantities via decimal-based multiplicative unit prefixes. Though the rules gover ...
being standard measurement. Instead, according to Vincent, the item is called a "''Royale with Cheese''" (in fact, the item in France is called a ''Royal Cheese'').